The Puffer Forum

I only got him yesterday and I just noticed he has white spot on his fins. I am pretty sure its Cryptocaryon irritans as it looks just like the freshwater version.

The tank has been set up a year (was a reef tank till yesterday) and has never housed fish so I don't know how he's got it, he looked fine in the shop?

I was going to try lowering the salt level, has anyone had any experience with this and can hint the best way to do it and for how long. I don't want to use chemicals if I can help it.

Thanks guys, my first marine puffer and my first ever case of ick with a marine fish, never thought to quarintine him in a tank thats never had fish in it.

Not sure if this will help, but we had some issues with ich in our new tanks. Ich Away was cheap and worked really well. Also, raising the salt level and temp a bit helps with ich. However, this worked with our cichlids. I'm not sure about puffers, but raising the water temp and adding salt is well-known to shorten the life cycle of ich so it can be killed in the free-swimming stage.

Here's the treatment article by Puffer Queen:
library/hospital/swich/

and one by Bob Fenner:
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ichartmar.htm

@LadyLuck: Adding salt to a marine tank is not an option to treat a Cryptocaryon infestation, but as you noted it helps with the freshwater counterpart Ichthyophthirius multifilis.

I figured as much. I've been reading about the differences in salt. Our LFS has always told us that aquarium salt is fine, but I'm reading different here. I guess we have everything down-pat for our cichlids, but this brackish tank is a learning experience.

How's the puffer? How's the treatment going?